


Earthland

by JTR01



Category: Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:26:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28526949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JTR01/pseuds/JTR01
Summary: After he first night in the TARDIS, Alison is given a tour of the ship by the Master and the Doctor takes her to see her first alien planet.
Relationships: Alison Cheney & Ninth Doctor (Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka)
Kudos: 1





	Earthland

"Do please follow me miss Cheney, so we can get this little tour over with." the Master told the newest member of the TARDIS crew.

"Little tour? In the last three hours I've seen a four cinemas, a swimming pool, two incredible large garages and rollercoaster." Alison replied as she followed behind the Master's brisk pace. "Why does this place have rollercoaster?"

"I have wondered that myself, but the Doctor has never given me a proper answer. And it is little as what I have shown you in at even half of what's in the TARDIS." the Master explained before turning at a corner.

As Alison saw that the Master didn't want this to become quite conversation, she instead began to think about everything that happened a few days ago. Meeting the Doctor who showed that there was a way to fight back against the nightmare that had ensnared Lanet, helping to save the world from the aliens, before leaving Joe to travel with a good alien and his robot butler who today was taking her on a tour on a spaceship that looks like a blue box. Now that she stopped to think about it, it's far more likely she's gone mad and is hallucinating all of this from a padded cell.

"And this is the wardrobe." the Master said as a door slid open, waving his hand around while Alison's eyes widened in awe.

"You are kidding me." she whispered as she looked around at the impossible number of clothing, before spotting the spiral staircase in the middle of the room. "Hang on, that doesn't make sense?"

"What doesn't make sense?" the Master asked with a huff of annoyance that Alison ignored as she went to the staircase.

"I've been trying to keep track of everything is, and this doesn't make sense. You go upstairs to reach the bedrooms and the cinema was near that. Then we went to the console room and then downstairs, but we went past those stairs to get to this room. This should be right below the first room, but the stairs go on forever." Alison pointed out as she looked up and down the staircase which indeed seemed to go on forever.

"Actually that's not the case." the Master said as he walked up the staircase and pulled out a brooch from his pocket. He dropped it down the gap of the staircase and then held out his hand where he had dropped it, and Alison stared at him in confusion for a few minutes while resisting the urge to ask what he was doing. Her patients was well awarded when the brooch that he had dropped landed into his hand which he then pocketed.

"Its called a space loop, the staircase ends where it begins." he explained before leading her towards the door. "You can explore the wardrobe in your own time and pick out some clothes, but until then I hope what you have is acceptable."

Alison looked down at what she was wearing, which was pretty much the same as what she had worn yesterday. The Master had handed her a pair of pyjamas and directed her to the bathroom, and afterwards he had taken her clothes to be cleaned. She woke up with these clothes outside her door, and the only thing that stopped it from being completely creepy was that they had failed to get her size exactly right though it was still a little creepy. All of this led to Alison thinking about something that should have been obvious as she glanced at a row of dresses hanging on a rack.

"Why does the Doctor have woman clothes in his wardrobe?" she asked and the Master stopped, a look on his face that made her want to explain herself better. "I mean I know he travelled with someone before, but even from what I've seen you can tell they can't all belong to the same woman. If she was my size she couldn't wear any of those dresses over there."

The Master stared at her silent for a few seconds before speaking, his tone screaming with annoyance. "You humans can be so annoying."

"Hey! You asked me to come."

"I know and I'm regretting it already. But if you must know the Doctor has been travelling through time for thousands of years and he has offered many the chance to travel in the TARDIS. He likes it for some baffling reason, something about enjoying the excitement in their eyes when they see something new and different. Anyway as you can imagine that means he has stocked up on a variety of clothing. Besides while I have never seen him wear a dress he has worn some of the woman clothing."

"He's what?"

"Physical sex isn't as fixed with our kind as it is with yours. We've both been women in the past and I hope that's not a problem. Now is there anything else you would like to know? Please take your time, it's not like there's a whole universe for the Doctor to show off to you."

"Ok I get it. Thanks anyway." Alison answered, deciding that the idea that the Doctor was once a woman wasn't as surprising as everything else she's seen so far and the Master only took a step towards the door when Alison spoke again. "Actually I do have another question."

While she didn't know it, the programming in the Master's artificial brain was the only thing holding back his natural instinct to kill her. He had very much forgotten how annoying humans were and underestimated his ability to be patient with them. While this was happening he gestured for Alison to ask her question as he didn't trust himself to speak.

"Do either of you ever change your clothes? That outfit you're wearing doesn't exactly look comfortable and the Doctor wore his clothes throughout that whole Shalka mess. Yet you're both wearing the same thing as yesterday."

"If you must know the TARDIS cleans clothes automatically even if you are wearing them. And don't expect either of us to change our clothing as frequently as you would, we tend to stick to the same style consistently except for when we go through drastic changes. After that we would find a new style, and in the Doctor's case that ranges from suits and rainbow scarves to question marks and shirts with dolphins."

"Shirts with dolphins?" Alison asked with a smile of bemusement as she followed the Master out of the wardrobe.

"Please don't ask. I've been trying to forget about that atrocious shirt for centuries, it was almost as bad as that coat." the Master told her as walked towards the stairs heading up to the console room with Alison following behind him.

"What coat?" the Doctor asked as he pressed a few buttons while glancing towards the Master and Alison as they approached the console. The tubes inside of the glass cylinder reaching up the ceiling was moving up and down to signify they were in active flight and you could feel gentle vibrations from wherever the engines were.

"The rainbow one." the Master clarified with a shudder that weirdly seemed both genuine and forced to mock the Doctor.

"Oh it wasn't that terrible." the Doctor replied and Alison almost laughed when she saw the look on shock on the Master's face. "I know it wasn't pretty to look at but in retrospect it had some charm in a odd way. You know I should still have it somewhere in the wardrobe, I should go looking for it when I have the chance."

"Wait, you still have it? You mean you didn't burn it when you came to your sense?"

"No I just threw it into the wardrobe and tried to forget all about it. But that's life isn't it, at one moment you love something and then you hate it before you learn to love it again."

"You are in desperate need of professional help Doctor." the Master said slowly, still blown away by what the Doctor said while the Alison looked at the two of them in bemusement.

"Then I'll give Sigmund a call when I have some time. I've been meaning to get the band back together anyway, we still have a gig booked for 1984 if I'm not mistaken." the Doctor said, mostly to himself, as he pressed a few buttons and looked up to Alison. "So are you ready for your first real trip?"

"Yeah, totally. Where are we going?" she asked with a mixture of nervousness and excitement.

"Somewhere fun." he answered with a smile before he pulled down a lever making the tubes inside the cylinder stop in sequence with a loud groaning noise, both stopping as the TARDIS landed with a thud that made Alison grab hold of the console for support. She looked up at the Doctor was was now gesturing to the doors as he spoke. "Outside those doors is the planet Jast, most specifically the second greatest amusement park in all of time and space. In my opinion that is, though honestly mine is the only one that should matter."

"Really?" Alison asked, surprised that he would take her to an amusement park. "Why the second? Why not the first?"

"The first was actually a diabolical torture machine devised by a madman, so while it might be the most fun and enjoyable it wouldn't be a good idea to go there." the Doctor explained while Alison approached the doors hesitantly, not seeing the look he gave the Master who had the decency to look a little ashamed. "Anyway I figured that after the Shalka business, you would enjoy seeing aliens doing something familiar."

"There are aliens out there? Are they dangerous?" Alison questioned, unable to keep the fear and worry from her voice.

"Yes. The children here are so noisy it can drive you to suicide." The Doctor answered with mock seriousness. "Of course they aren't, they're people just like you. Always in need of saving and prone to making stupid decisions."

"Now that's unfair Doctor. Humans are in need of saving far more than the rest of the universe." the Master added making Alison switch targets to glare at.

"Ok, I get it. They're people and I have nothing to worry about."

"Good, are you ready to go?"

When Alison nodded with excitement the Doctor snapped his finger dramatically, and the doors to the TARDIS opened. He then held out his arm for Alison which, after a moment of surprise, she took and he guided her out while waving goodbye to the Master who simply rolled his eyes in response. Alison felt nervous as she exited the TARDIS, the doors shutting behind her suddenly in a way that would have made her jump of it was not for the fact that she was amazed by what she was seeing.

It was exactly what the Doctor said and from the rides it looked like any other amusement park she went to as a kid, with people screaming in in joy as they rode rollercoasters and parents smiling as their children looked around with excitement, but it was so much more that to her. Because the rides weren't connected to the tracks and seemed to hover near them as it moved around, and the people around her were all so different. They varied from looking very similar to her with only one or two noticeable differences, to being so completely different that she doubted anyone could have doubted they would have existed. The sky was scarlet red and the clouds were a dark green, and in the diet range she could see trees that looked to be a darker shade of blue than the TARDIS.

"This is so amazing. It's so...hang on, is that Buckingham Palace?" Alison asked as she slipped her arm from the Doctor's and pointed at the building not that far from them.

"Yes it is. Welcome to Earthland, the theme park version of Earth's history. There are recreations of famous buildings and landmarks with plenty of rides to make everything just more exciting. Not very popular with humans, but after they started to make a name for themselves a few centuries ago someone decided it would be fun to make an amusement park of the more exciting parts of their history." the Doctor explained casually as he look led around before grabbing her hand. "But forget about that, I've found the arcades."

It had been surprisingly fun to do things she's done many times before, because it was the first time she wasn't doing it on Earth. The first time she played in an arcade on an alien planet. The first time she had hot dog on an alien planet. The first time she breathed air on an alien planet. It as so familiar but at the same time so exciting, and despite at times looking bored the Doctor seemed to enjoy playing with one of those coin machines until he ran out and couldn't get the sweet he wanted.

A few hours later she was finishing her ice cream and listened to the Doctor talk about how despite being fun, arcades could be described as gambling for minors as they spend a ridiculous amount of money for tickets to purchase items which would be much cheaper to buy from a store. While it was a conversation the Doctor seemed to be happy to have by himself she felt she had to interrupt him once she worked it out.

"I know why you brought me here." she said and the Doctor looked at her with a confused expression so Alison clarified. "You brought me here to show me that I don't need to be scared of aliens and not everything in the universe is like the Shalka. And you probably wanted to make sure I wouldn't freak out or anything since you fight things like the Shalka all the time."

"That's not...Ok, you're half right. I did want to check you were ok. But its more than that." The Doctor explained as they continued to walk aimlessly, taking a deep breath as if what he was going to say was difficult. "I haven't don't this for awhile. Travelled with someone that is, and its never safe. It wasn't safe when I used to do it and now I'm being given missions to fight evil monsters like the Shalka. This was about helping you but it was also about easing me back into this, reminding myself on how to do it by taking you somewhere safe and normal. If that makes any sense."

"Of course it makes sense." Alison reassured him with a smile and she was happy to see him respond with a smile of his own.

She was about to ask what they should do next when there was a frightful scream, making everyone look around wildly. Alison saw the Doctor become rigid as he tried to figure out where the source of the scream, and eventually they both saw some people running desperately from around the corner.

"What was that you said about safe and normal?" Alison asked the Doctor Who looked at her with concern.

"Are you sure you want to come with me?" the Doctor asked her, his eyes telling her everything she needed to know. He wasn't just asking in case she wanted to go back to the TARDIS, he was asking because he wanted her to come with him.

"Of course I do, now let's go!" Alison told him firmly as she grabbed him by the hand and began to pull him towards the screams.

"Oh wonderful. You're a hand grabber." The Doctor muttered from behind her with a little annoyance, before mumbling a little quieter. "I'm supposed to do the hand grabbing."

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think and if there are any spelling mistakes or sentences that don't make sense. Was originally a full story but I cut it down to a chapter because the plot I had wasn't that good and I didn't want to delete what I already did.


End file.
